Digital Signage Expo 2017 - The Corporate Communication Content Challenge: How Blinds.com Got It Right Without Breaking The Bank
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This document summarizes a presentation about how Blinds.com was able to create effective corporate communication content without spending a large budget. The presentation discusses how corporate communications differs from other types of content and the challenges it poses. It also explores affordable tools and strategies that non-designers can use to make great corporate communication content, such as leveraging free and low-cost design tools and empowering teams to share the authorship role. The objective is to introduce methods for overcoming budget constraints and the "crisis of having the right content".
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Digital Signage Expo 2017 - The Corporate Communication Content Challenge: How Blinds.com Got It Right Without Breaking The Bank
- 1. The Corporate Communication Content Challenge: How Blinds.com Got it Right Without Breaking the Bank Speaker: Brad Parler Digital Communications Admin – Blinds.com
- 2. All DSE 2016 attendees taking DSEG- approved certification or certification renewal courses will be issued a downloadable certificate after the show to provide proof of attendance. To renew your DSEG certificate, please submit your proof of course completion directly to the DSEG via email, at renewal@digitalsignageexperts.org. Be sure to include your name, company name, address and email. The Corporate Communication Content Challenge: How Blinds.com Got it Right Without Breaking the Bank This course is registered with DSEG for continuing professional education. As such, it does not include content that may be deemed or construed to be an approval or endorsement by DSEG or DSE of any company, product or service related to the contents of this course. _______________________________________ Questions related to any company, product or service mentioned in this course should be addressed with the speakers after the conclusion of this session.
- 3. We all know that 'Content is King,' but not many talk about how to overcome the crisis of having the right corporate communications content! This session will introduce you to affordable (or even free) tools that non-designers can use to make amazing corporate communication. Course Description Learning Objectives • Understand what makes corporate communications so different, the possible pitfalls and how to overcome them. • Discover free, nearly free, and the professional tools that can become part of your daily toolbox. • Explore how to leverage the power of your team to distribute the authorship role and empower others within the enterprise to make content.
- 55. Brad Parler Brad@Blinds.com 800-505-1905 This Concludes the Digital Signage Expert Group Continuing Education Course
Editor's Notes
- Main Title: The Corporate Content Challenge / How we got it right without breaking the bank How many here, know who I am – what I’ve become known for, or seen anything on the IC / DS that we’ve put into our corporate campus? (( Want to understand who’s here))
- In my environment all of our screens are EMPLOYEE facing (minus the stray customer in the office, or tour that comes through once a month). We are all in one main location and in that location: What is my job??? I exist inside of Blinds.com to provide solutions to communication problems which I solve via technology, that are easy to use and WOWS my internal customers (our employees).
- We are all in one main location and in that location: * This is one of the things that makes my install really different * WE Expect for the user Dwell times to be really long (the screen is over their head – in their cube) We aim for get at a glance / don’t make me think kind of content – as they are thinking about how to do their job I strive to make my content hype localized Of those 140 screens – I have 78 channels of SignageLive ( I was doing a 1:1 deployment and move to HD over IP to a 1 to many)
- Today, I want to break up my talk into 3 sections: Pitfalls that I hit in the over 4 years of leading the charge at Blinds.com’s Visual Communications Healm The Tool kit I use to pull these things off And Leave you with “The Top Seven Best Practices” for Corporate Content ((( But ultimately I need to hear from you so you get the most value from this hour )))
- Today, I want to break up my talk into 3 sections: Pitfalls that I hit in the over 4 years of leading the charge at Blinds.com’s Visual Communications Healm The Tool kit I use to pull these things off And Leave you with “The Top Seven Best Practices” for Corporate Content ((( But ultimately I need to hear from you so you get the most value from this hour )))
- Today, I want to break up my talk into 3 sections: Pitfalls that I hit in the over 4 years of leading the charge at Blinds.com’s Visual Communications Healm The Tool kit I use to pull these things off And Leave you with “The Top Seven Best Practices” for Corporate Content ((( But ultimately I need to hear from you so you get the most value from this hour )))
- Today, I want to break up my talk into 3 sections: Pitfalls that I hit in the over 4 years of leading the charge at Blinds.com’s Visual Communications Healm The Tool kit I use to pull these things off And Leave you with “The Top Seven Best Practices” for Corporate Content ((( But ultimately I need to hear from you so you get the most value from this hour )))
- While I understand that we are here to talk about content If we don’t deliver content with proper context then we’ll miss everytime CONTEXT: It’s not just what we are saying… it’s the tone we use to say it…. We want engagement … but I believe that when I was designing content for the out come of the experience is when I felt the tide shift!
- CONTEXT: It’s not just what we are saying… it’s the tone we use to say it…. We want engagement … but I believe that when I was designing content for the out come of the experience is when I felt the tide shift! When you fully understand the CONTEXT the CONTENT will finally be “king” without context – you’re designing blind
- Context: I was the audience that I was designing for, when I first started… I know, it was an un-fair advantage that you may not have. How do you overcome this in your corporate campus? Build out audience personas! BTW – you will need to do multiple of these to cover your entire audience. Get to know who they are away from work – so you can know how to best talk to them when they are working! WHAT DO YOU DO IF YOU ARE NOT THE ONE YOUR ARE CREATING FOR???
- YOU GET TO KNOW THEM… FULLY! Marketing personas, or the idea of building a profile to market to has been around a long time – but often not done (or I’ve not seen it) when it comes to internal communication. What do you need to include: Demographics (duh) End goals What motivates them Who influences them (externally & internally) With these things you can start to design with REAL empathy! A persona defines who the story is about, Scenario defines when, where and how the story of the persona takes place. Goal defines what the persona wants or needs to fulfill.
- The 2nd pitfall I came up against started when my project / position at the company moved from just the Operations Department and needed to scale to delivering value to the entire enterprise. I’m not proud to say, but I became hooked on stock graphics.
- Pitfall #2 – I’m going to call “OVER STOCK…”
- Pitfall #2 – OVER STOCK… OR WHY I’M SO OVER USING STOCK GRAPHICS UNLESS IT’S FOR SUPER SPECIFIC THINGS
- My new rule…. If you need an image, bloody MAKE IT!
- Pitfall #2 – OVER STOCK… The pitfall that I ran into, was the people who I was designing for were no longer in the images I was making because I used Stock graphics as a crutch to get more output. The only time I will use stock If I need a texture, or objects as a part of the images. NEVER if I need to show people, for that I’ll get photos of my teammates!
- THIS NEXT PITFALL MIGHT BE MORE ON THE SAME THEME AS THE LAST, BUT IT TOO CAME OUT OF PAIN IN SCALING WHAT I DO…
- Pitfall #3 – Being an Army of ONE
- Pitfall #3 – Being an Army of ONE What to do when you’re creating solo
- Pitfall #3 – Being an Army of ONE At first I felt my being solo was an advantage, I wore it as a badge of honor – but then I discover it was a crutch, and a means of staying in my comfort zone. I was providing value, but I wasn’t being inclusive and our Visual Communications reflected my design sense alone, not the super diverse culture we have at the office. The way I over came this: Distributed Authorship via tools that were already in hands of people who wanted a voice. If they were not a designer, I would lend a hand or introduce them to tools we’ll cover in a bit.
- THIS NEXT is One that I’m still very much fighting…
- It’s this idea that the only way to communicate internally is putting it on a screen. Because then “it’s visible” or “it won’t be ignored if we put it on a screen”…. The true trouble with this line of thinking is that if we’re only communicating via email and digital signage, we have to brain vomit all of our ideas on to the screen at once. This visual diarrhea results in overly complex and wordy images, because we only have this way to get word out…
- I guess this is a good time to tell you about some of the rules I’ve set for the Signage Network: NO, ABSOLUTELY NO AUDIO… You can use video, but there will be no sound. (they are above people’s desk, and they are trying to work / talk to customers) Headlines only … If you need to get wordy, use another medium (we have other options) Understand that I might remake your work and then post it.
- Take a breath…. Any questions – ready to move on to tools??
- Before I dive head first in to this, I want to check in with you guys, does anyone care what I use? This won’t be an exhaustive list, but want to show off some unconventional gems that I’ve come across.
- Creating things is hard! My hope is that sharing this list with you – it will make your process to create things suck less. #1 As a designer / creative you have to think outside the box. #2 Make everything fit a grid layout #3 Whitespace is wasteful space – BullShit! #4 Consistency When Needed #5 Every project starts with a story #6 Kern That $#!& #7 Test on a real screen!
- #1 – Think Outside The Box I had to put this one first, because this is the one that pisses me off the most. This statement, is not a best practice.
- The creative process does not happen easily in a vacuum! It was when I got to Blinds.com when I finally realized that I have made a career out of connecting worlds that are often not connected. Web / IT to Broadcast systems Digital Signage to Internal Marketing / Communications Look for ways that things connect, you may not see it at first but when you do – design on the vertices
- #2 PUT EVERYTHING ON A GRID SYSTEM It has been said that a good grid system is like a fairy godmother that can transform your design from average to something clean, clear and effective! This is best when you are designing for press or a page, but on a screen – it’s often over kill. For Screen – I’d simplify to Rule of Thirds (still a grid) For Long form – use a grid with many columns to bring a more flexible approach
- #3 WHITE SPACE, and the fear to leave it empty Space within a layout is seen (rightfully so) as a resource, and there’s a misconception that you have to use all of it…. I’m not begging for your design to become minimalist – unless that is what your audience persona is going to respond best to.
- This is an example I’m borrowing from Canva’s Design School – yes, they have a free resource to help you become a better design, and – I’ll say again *IT’S FREE* Design on the left is great, it’s well balanced, but busy. I’d prefer the more minimal design on the right, but design is subjective. It all goes back to what we talked about with understanding your audience!
- #4 Keeping Everything Consistent There is a balance that we as designers have to strike between consistency and non-conformity. The things that are known as different are often remembered but when it is all different – is it really different? << anonymous example of consistency gone wild>> The brain needs visible queues to let us know that something different is being displayed, and we need to glance again.
- The design is consistent, but the way that the team member broke up the design by using different backgrounds and different colors makes you look each time on of these hits the screen! This is a real example of one of my team members submitting a design for screen – he asked that one of the 30 slides be shown at random each time the playlist rotates so that you see all of them in a day or so..
- #5 Every project starts with a story This goes back to my IT roots, and I’m super grateful to the teams at Blinds.com for teaching me about Agile Methodologies! In Agile software development “User Stories” are used to shift the focus off writing about requirements, to talking about them. Marketing and Advertising, hell even Sales is all about building the Narrative – which is why I’ve started using that mindset when it comes to content design!
- This is the simple frame work for writing a user story. As a <user>, I want <goal> so that <business reason> Now, all of my projects start by helping the user write out statements like this (for them and any other stakeholders) and also writing out acceptance criteria – “I’ll consider this done when…” I do this so that we have firm criteria about projects, or collateral I create and in doing this, it has nearly eliminated project scope creep and allows me to deliver value – because we know when we are done (with this version of the story).
- Now, all of my projects start by helping the user write out statements like this (for them and any other stakeholders) and also writing out acceptance criteria – “I’ll consider this done when…” I do this so that we have firm criteria about projects, or collateral I create and in doing this, it has nearly eliminated project scope creep and allows me to deliver value – because we know when we are done (with this version of the story).
- #6 Kern That $#!& Any font nerds in the house? Can I get an Amen?! Typography is super important when your design hinges on being readable from a distance! This is something I can really nerd out about – so I’m looking for yawing to know when I need to move on… Kerning – spacing between letters Leading – spacing of lines of text relative to each other Tracking – letter spacing over all Form vs Function – etc. Will reference it again, DesignSchool.Canva.com has loads of great info that you can reference.
- #7 Test in a real environment! I wish that I had taken a photo of this, they may not have let me at the time – but the best example I’ve seen of this was when I visited Four Winds Interactive last year. They had a wall dedicated to different displays in the wild, matched with different kinds of players that are pushing content to that display. I have learned more via failed tests that I put on a screen near me than I’d care to admit. It’s not just nice to test – it is damn necessary. Also, use the same exact setup as what is used in wild (in front of your customers).
- Also, use the same exact setup as what is used in wild (in front of your customers).
- Time for questions – please note I’ll stay around as long as I’m able to.